Cronopios and Famas

by Julio Cortázar

Book Overview

"The Instruction Manual," the first chapter, is an absurd assortment of tasks and items dissected in an instruction-manual format. "Unusual Occupations," the second chapter, describes the obsessions and predilections of the narrator's family, including the lodging of a tiger-just one tiger- "for the sole purpose of seeing the mechanism at work in all its complexity." Finally, the "Cronopios and Famas" section delightfully characterizes, in the words...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811214028
• ISBN13: 9780811214025
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
• Length: 162 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Buy this book!

Years ago I heard readings from this book on KPFK, and was quite impressed ( enough so to keep the tape for some 40 years) What a treat to find that it is available in paperback. Cortazar's sense of humour and sense of the absurd along with his poetic style are unsurpassed. If you have never read this one, it is a real treat. If I had to pick ten books to take to the proverbial desert island, this would be one of them!

Makes me happy.

This is on my list of favorite books of all time; it is a great book not because it subtly describes the frivolties of life and not because it shows the persistence of human spirit, blah blah blah... It is a beautiful and great book because it makes you laugh - in its own great non funny way. It is not laughing out loud, of course, more like chuckling to yourself as you read it. You even get to identify with the characters of the book, with their weird perks and idiosyncracies. In our real world, the cronopios have a great cult following (at least online) - in the book, they are what people strive to be: worry-free animals in pursuit of happiness. I read this book on a regular basis, mostly in short pieces. It is written in short chapters, so even when you are too tired to read anything else, this will cheer you up. Recommended for all conoisseurs of inventive and experimental literature.

Brilliant and boldly experimental

"Cronopios and Famas," by Julio Cortazar, is one of those wonderful books that stands in a class by itself. It has been translated from Spanish into English by Paul Blackburn. The book is a collection of interconnected short pieces that often blur the distinctions between the short story and the essay; some of the pieces further share aspects of poetry and drama. Cortazar also incorporates elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and comedy into this work. Call "Cronopios and Famas" a novel, if you prefer; or simply label it "experimental literature." But whatever you call it, read it!The book is divided into four main sections, each of which is further subdivided into several short pieces. The first section, "The Instruction Manual," contains such pieces as "Instructions on How to Cry" and "Instructions on How to Climb a Staircase." Cortazar invites us to look at everyday things and actions from a radically altered perspective; in the process, he seems to point towards an occult, or metaphysical, wisdom.The second section, "Unusual Occupations," details the antics of a bizarre family (think TV's "Addams Family" as drawn by Dr. Seuss, with input from Franz Kafka). The third section, "Unstable Stuff," is the most varied and chaotic section of the book, and is rich in fantastic and absurd elements.The final section of the book has the same title as the entire book: "Cronopios and Famas." In several short vignettes Cortazar draws a portrait of an alternate society populated by three different types (races? castes? species?) of beings: Cronopios, Famas, and Esperanzas. Cortazar describes the individuals of each group, and details many instances of social interactions between the groups. This final section of the book is reminiscent of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," but more cryptic. Along the way we witness the invention of the "wild-artichoke clock" and get a glimpse of "GENITAL, the Cigarette with Sex.""Cronopios and Famas" is not for the lazy reader. I must admit that after my first reading of the book, I didn't really like it that much. But the second time I read it, I said to myself, "This is brilliant! What was wrong with me the first time I read it?" I wonder what my reactions will be on my third and fourth readings. This book, rich in irony and remarkable images, is truly a remarkable achievement by one of the most innovative masters of 20th century literature.

instructions on how to be joyful

This is the only book I ever stole from a library in my youth, and it helped me become a writer. The sometimes only page-long pieces create a uniquely Cortazar-ian world that contains: instructions on how to wind a watch (while death waits patiently in the background), the adventures of a bear lost in your plumbing pipes, and the story of a line that runs from a letter thrown on a table, into and out of a painting, onto the street to catch a bus and ultimately to a chillingly logical destination which would be the envy of Poe or Borges... Like Breton's NADJA, Brautigan's IN WATERMELON SUGAR and Calvino's INVISIBLE CITIES, it's a collection as measureless and resonant as imagination itself. What a fine purchase it will make: you're not only getting a great Cortazar book, the book will be getting you for its own rebirth-day.

Unstable Stuff

Cronopios and Famas is a humorous and discourteous charge against the establishment. The lengthy title of one of its chapters gives us a summary of the entire books intentions: "A Small Story Tending To Illustrate the Uncertainty of the Stability within wich We Like to Believe We Exist, or Laws could Give Ground to the Exceptions, Unforeseen Disasters, or Improbabilities, and I Want to See You There".Through this series of short anecdotes, myths, and "instructions", Cortazar succeeds in satirizing (undermining) the traditional concepts of work, family, and social customs. His original and fascinating observations make this book entertaining as well. I first read Paul Blackburn's translation of this book five years ago, the humor was so absorbing and endearing that barely twenty pages into the book I was willing to declare it a favorite of mine; now, having read it for the third time, it is no less astonishing. I recommend it to anyone with a taste for absurd literary humor.